Story Of A Superstore
by homesweethomicide13
Summary: AU. Nara Shikamaru's family owns the biggest line of superstores in Konoha. Inuzuka Kiba is the son of the recently deceased local vet, and his family has lost all of their money. They cross paths one night, and a friendship blooms. Will it last?


**Title:** Story Of A Superstore  
**Author:** homesweethomicide13  
**Rating:** T  
**Pairing:** ShikaKiba  
**Warning:** Yaoi / shounen-ai etc  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't be here  
**Summary:** AU. Nara Shikamaru's family owns the biggest line of superstores in Konoha. Inuzuka Kiba is the son of the recently deceased local vet, and his family has lost all of their money. They cross paths one night, and a friendship blooms. However... will it last? Will it become something more? Or will they be torn apart by Shika's cruel manager Kakashi?

**Story Of A Superstore**

Chapter 1: Strange First Impressions

The young man hummed happily to himself as he wandered the store, occasionally tossing items from the shelves around him into the already half-full shopping cart he was pushing along. Looking into the cart, people passing by gave the young man strange looks. The reason for these odd glances was purely for the content in the cart – junk food of every kind, mixed in with sugar-filled drinks and mounds of ice cream. It was clear that this boy had some sort of addiction to all things sweet and sugary.

He was dressed simply in a fish-net shirt underneath a camo-green vest that all store workers were required to wear, however he had neglected to do it up. He wore a pair of simple brown cargo pants, and faded black shoes. His black hair was tied up in a ponytail, but when let loose would carelessly fall around his shoulders like silk. His dark brown eyes gazed lazily around the shelves, picking out more and more sugary delights. One hand was almost permanently shoved into one of his pockets.

The nametag on the vest read 'Shikamaru'.

He finally got to the checkouts and paid for his cargo – not at all surprised that it came to a rather large sum of money. Eyes blinking lazily, he pulled out his father's credit card and took care of the price. Shikamaru was from the Nara household – one of the richest families in their country of Konoha, and owner of the branch of superstores known as the Kono-Mart, the largest superstore in Konoha. And he just happened to work in one of them. But despite being the son of Nara Shikaku, the most important man in their family, he didn't get treated differently. If anything, his boss liked to pick on him, purely cause he was a 'lazy, spoiled brat'.

And so it was that, just as he had loaded up his car with his delicious cargo, said manager called him back into the store.

Kakashi was a tall man, with thick silver hair and odd eyes – one of them was as blue as morning sky, but the other was the colour of blood. When Shikamaru had asked about it upon meeting Kakashi, the older man had merely shrugged and muttered something about an accident with his best friend. He seemed to have a grudge against Shikamaru, commenting on tardiness and his constant laziness whenever he saw the chance – though the irony of this was that Kakashi himself was a perfect imitation. If he ever came in on time, Kakashi would do nothing but read a small, orange book in the back of the store for a good few hours.

"Nara!" Shikamaru cringed at the sound of the manager's voice, and turned around, trying his hardest not to shoot the strange man his best glare. "Get inside. We got a possible case of shoplifting." Kakashi fixed his mismatched eyes on Shikamaru, and the young man cringed further. "I want you to deal with him." As Shikamaru walked past him to enter the store via the back entrance, Kakashi glared at him. "Isle 16."

Shikamaru found the suspect sooner than he had anticipated. He had barely reached Isle 16 when a young man of around his age walked briskly past him, one arm clinging tightly to the bottom of his jacket. Rolling his eyes at how obvious he was being, Shikamaru turned and caught the boy on the shoulder. He spun around, startled, and Shikamaru saw his eyes take in the vest and nametag, and it sunk in. He tried to squirm free of his grasp but Shikamaru had a very strong grip. Finally, as though desperation kicked in, one of the boy's legs shot up. It missed its target, but it still caught Shikamaru in a painful way, and he let go of the boy's shoulder. Instantly, the boy took off at a run. Snarling in pain, Shikamaru ran after him, limping slightly in his right leg.

The boy had almost made it to the front door when a tall, silver-haired man stepped in front of him, mismatched eyes narrowed in a glare as he took the boy by the front of his jacket.

"Hand them over, kid." Nervously, the guy reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of expensive jeans, made specifically for skating. Kakashi took them and dropped the boy to the floor, just as Shikamaru caught up. "You're useless, Nara. Can't even catch a thief." Kakashi laughed bitterly. "Take him outside." Avoiding Kakashi's eyes, Shikamaru hauled the boy to his feet and began leading him outside. He could feel the boy trembling beneath his hand and felt sorry for him. Judging from the security tag still attached to the jeans he had seen in Kakashi's hand, this boy wasn't an expert at shoplifting… probably hadn't even done it before.

He gently pushed the boy through the doors and stood outside with him. Shikamaru knew he had to ban the kid from coming back – first offense was a ban, anymore than that and the police were called – but something held it back. He took this hesitation as a chance to examine the boy. He was slightly shorter than himself, with scruffy brown hair. His eyes were his most prominent feature – they were unlike any eyes Shikamaru had seen, pure black, and much resembling cat eyes. Also, there were two red markings on his face – triangular shapes, one on each cheek. He was dressed in a pale grey hooded jacket, with black fur lining the hood, sleeves and along the bottom of the jacket. Brown three-quarters hung loosely around his legs, and he wore blue sandal-like shoes on his feet. Clearly this boy was not from the rich neighbourhood.

"Why did you do it?" He found himself asking. The boy looked up sharply and studied Shikamaru's face. Finding no deceit or mockery in the bored expression, he shrugged.

"I just… I've never done it before… but, well… my family don't have much money since our clinic was burnt down, and I told my mom that I had a job… but, she wanted proof and so I thought that… maybe… if I went home wearing something expensive, she might believe me." His voice was strangely deep, and held an odd hint of a growl. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Why did you tell her you had a job?"

"Cause, well… I didn't want her to think badly of me. Ever since… the incident, she hasn't been the same. I mean, I'm the man of the house now, cause my dad died when the clinic caught fire. He was trying to save as many animals as he could…" The boy's voice cracked, and he paused for a moment before carrying on. "And my sister is already bringing money in, training dogs to be used for disabled people. I didn't want… I just don't want her to feel bad, yeah?" Shikamaru understood what he was trying to say. He felt a hint of sorrow for the poor kid, and sighed.

"Look, I won't ban you. I'll explain to my boss that you did it cause your dad died, and he should lay off. He seems to be tender in the death area." Shikamaru rolled his eyes at his strange boss. "But, this is on one condition."

"What is it? I'll do anything!" The boy pleaded, grabbing ahold of Shikamaru's vest collar and gazing up into his eyes. Shikamaru hated to admit it but he liked the closeness between them.

"Meet me back here, tomorrow. Same time, same place." He told the guy. "I want to give you something."

"Okay, sure thing, uh… Shikamaru." He replied, reading the nametag and grinning.

"Good. Oh, and what's your name?" The guy grinned a rather wolfish grin and pointed to the red markings on his face.

"Either you're unfamiliar with these, or you've been living under a rock for the past many decades." Shikamaru held back his retort that he had barely been alive two decades yet, and waited for him to continue. "I'm Inuzuka Kiba."

Inuzuka! He knew that name! Suddenly everything made sense. The Inuzuka family were well known to be the best veterinarians in Konoha, and were two slots away from the Nara family in riches. However, their favoured clinic had mysteriously caught fire one night, and the town not only lost their veterinary clinic, but their best vet, too. Shikamaru remembered that Mr Inuzuka had been reported dead when the fire had finally been put out. Each Inuzuka were marked at birth with red, triangular tattoos, one on each cheek. This marked them out, and told people who they belonged to. Once, the Inuzuka's carried their tattoos with pride. Now, however, they often hid them. Ever since the tragic fire, the wealth of the family had deteriorated, and now only a slither of it remained, in the hands of Inuzuka Tsume, the wife of the vet who had died in the fire. Many of the animals had also died in the fire, causing outrage among the owners. Everything Kiba had said fit in well. His dad must have been the vet who died, which meant…

"You are the son of Inuzuka Tsume?" Kiba nodded. He still had one hand raised to his face, and was tenderly stroking one tattoo. It seemed that Kiba was one of the few remaining Inuzuka's who were proud of their family tradition. "Well… Kiba, I'll see you here tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure." Kiba nodded, and without another word to the lazy worker, turned and ran from the store parking lot. Shikamaru stood and watched him go, a slight smile on his face. _Inuzuka Kiba, huh?_ He thought to himself. _You sure are a character…_

He turned and went back into the store. Unsurprisingly, Kakashi approached him immediately.

"Did you ban him?" He demanded. Shikamaru merely shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to ignore the death glare being sent his way. He had no clue why Kakashi despised him so, but he didn't much care either way.

"No." Shikamaru replied. "He only did it out of grief. His dad just died." Although the fire had happened a while ago now, Shikamaru thought it best to bend the truth a little to help the young Inuzuka out. As predicted, Kakashi's eyes darkened and he lowered his gaze.

"Died, huh? What a pity." He murmured in a different tone of voice. "Ah, well… I suppose he can be forgiven. But one more slip and that boy is toast." Shikamaru nodded briefly and stepped around his unusual boss, making for the back of the store and his car. He couldn't wait to get home. It was already dark, meaning he should have finished just under an hour ago, but yet here he still was.

As he slid into his car, his mind traced back to the Inuzuka. The family had gone through hell after the fire, yet he showed no signs of trauma, or despair. In fact, had he not known of the Inuzuka fire, Shikamaru would see Kiba as a pure representative of the strong-willed, skilled family.

He drove home in silence – usually he'd turn on the radio for background noise – however, tonight his thoughts blocked out the uneasy silence. Pausing at a red light, he shrugged off his vest and threw it onto the seat beside him, finally feeling free of the accursed superstore. Though he wasn't much looking forward to home, either. Thirty long minutes of interrogation from his father about work, until his mother turned on Shikaku and told him to 'leave the poor boy alone'. Man, did his mother have his father whipped. He wondered if his wife would have _him_ whipped, if he ever married, that is. The future wasn't looking bright for him.

That was another thing his father pushed upon him. Marriage. Shikamaru hated the word with a fiery passion. He swore, if his father so much as hinted about him finding a woman to settle down with, he'd… do something. He frowned in frustration at the lack of threats available in his mind.

He pulled into the Nara residence and parked his car in his personal space. He gathered his load of junk food and stumbled into the house, dumping the million shopping bags in his own personal kitchen (his mother had told his father to have one of the spare rooms downstairs turned into a kitchen for their son, as she was fed up with having nowhere to put 'real food' because all of the storage space was packed with his junk food). After sorting it all out and putting it in the rightful places, he went up the stairs in the corner to his bedroom, to take a refreshing shower. Anything to delay the time he had to face his accursed parents.

Still, tomorrow held something to look forward too. He would get to see Kiba again. He found it odd how that particular boy had somehow caught his interest, but he didn't care. Kiba seemed nice enough to befriend, and besides, what harm was there in hanging around with him? Smiling to himself, Shikamaru allowed his body to relax under the spray of hot water. Oh yes… tomorrow was going to be fun.

**_Author's Note: Sorry it's kind of short, but I wasn't really planning on putting it up here. I didn't think it was gonna be any good. It was based on a dream I had so I only wrote it to get it out of my head. Please let me know what you think! I have some of Chapter 2 written, too._**


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